Saturday, May 31, 2014

Leslie Banks (1890-1952)

To begin with,
you want to be a parson, and after a good education at Glenalmond College and
Keble College Oxford, you seem to be right on track.But then, a change of plan: after a while in an office job in shipping, the
stage beckons, following some good experiences in amateur theatricals.All’s goes well at first, with tours of North
America, and your first performance on the West End stage.But then war breaks out: you join up with the
Essex Regiment.

The Regiment
serves during the first day of the Battle of the Somme, 1 July 1916.As soon as the troops go over the top, they
come under heavy artillery and machine gun bombardment, and then get bogged
down in no man’s land.The order comes
to recommence the attack: it’s impossible, and the surviving soldiers retreat
and regroup.Later, the names of 949
officers and men of the Essex Regiment are recorded on the Thiepval Memorial,
their final resting places unknown.

You survive, but with
injuries.You recover, but your face is left
badly scarred and partly paralysed.At
first, it seems to be a major handicap, putting paid to your ambition to play
romantic leading roles.But after the
war, you join the Birmingham Repertory Company and by 1921, you are back in the
West End theatre.On stage, you discover
that you can either show the unblemished side of your face – for the kinder roles
-or the scarred side, for the
melodramatic roles.

In 1932, you begin
your film career.With your large bulk
and your contorted features, you become known for playing gruff and menacing
parts, such as the diabolic hunter of human prey in The Most Dangerous Game (1932).Hitchcock casts you in The Man Who
Knew Too Much (1934).In Fire Over England (1937), you play the
Earl of Leicester, and meet Laurence Olivier and Vivien Leigh during the defeat
of the Spanish Armada. The Arsenal
Stadium Mystery (1939) provides you with a leading role as an eccentric
detective, who is called in to solve the crime when one of the opposing players
drops dead, poisoned.

In the propaganda film, Went the Day Well (1942), you play the squire who turns out to be treacherous,
during the nightmare scenario of a German invasion by paratroopers (the film
also has the first performance by Thora Hird).At the time, Picturegoer says “The subtle change from the quiet squire to the
dangerous, scheming Nazi agent is put over by Leslie in an extremely clever and
polished way. This perfectly rounded character study shows Leslie at his very
best and is again proof of the versatility and abundant talent of this
accomplished artist.”

Half a century
afterwards, this chilling classic would be listed as one of the 100 Best War
Films, and summed up by The Independent:
"It subtly captures an immemorial quality of
English rural life—the church, the local gossip, the sense of community—and
that streak of native 'pluck' that people believed would see off Hitler".

For
Ealing, you make Ships with Wings
(1941), celebrating the Fleet Air Arm.Later, you serve as the Chorus in Laurence
Olivier’s Henry V (1944), another
morale-booster, intended to inspire the country after D-Day.

It’s a good life:
marriage to another actor, three daughters, plenty of work.You’re not a typical actor: you dislike
giving interviews, you wriggle out of praise, you don’t like talking about
yourself.You continue performing until
1950, when you are awarded the CBE for services to theatre.Two years later, you die after suffering a
stroke while out for a walk.Went the
life well?

2 comments:

Just wanted to say what a lovely biog this is. It's told me a lot about a man I already had great admiration for. What a shame he shunned interviews. He sounds a modest man and I don't suppose he dreamed anyone would still be interested in him 60 years on. Many thanks

I'm a huge fan of Leslie Banks since I've seen him as Count Zaroff in "The Most Dangerous Game".

It's very nice to learn that he was a such a modest man.

Aside from the films mentioned above I would like to add "The Fire Raisers" and "Red Ensign" two early films directed by Michael Powell with great performances by Leslie Banks.

His title role in "Sanders of the River" (1935) should also be mentioned.

His role as Keith Durrant in "21 Days" (1940) a selfish, ruthless lawyer who doesn't care at the least about the fate of other people as long as his carreer is flourishing is also a very impressive performance.

And one should not forget "Cottage to Let" where he plays the mildly eccentric inventor John Barrington.

About this blog

Disability is part of the human condition. At any one time, perhaps 15% of the population have a disability: add illness and ageing and impairment comes to us all. In this blog, I want to share short biographies of famous and not-so-famous disabled people, and by doing so demonstrate the variety and the achievement of disabled lives. I hope it will be interesting and instructive, and welcome suggestions for future subjects.